GNU bug report logs - #40731
[PATCH] Make emacsclient fail if --eval is used and no Emacs server connection established

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ilya Ostapyshyn <ilya.ostapyshyn <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: [PATCH] Make emacsclient fail if --eval is used and no Emacs server
 connection established
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2020 15:22:43 +0300

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hello,

This patch makes emacsclient quit with an error message if both --eval
and --alternate-editor were specified.

According to the current implementation, the emacsclient runs
alternate-editor, treating the eval expression as the filename, which
is IMO not very intuitive.

Kind regards,
Illia.

[0001-exit-if-no-connection-and-eval-used.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

Message #8 received at 40731 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ilya Ostapyshyn <ilya.ostapyshyn <at> gmail.com>
To: 40731 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#40731 Followup
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2020 10:23:43 +0300

I have found a commit ~6fe661342a24edcaea255c3ba9a37613031554da~ which
addressed the same issue but in a different way.

However, the commit was reverted
(hash ~f198a5c5144fdded1400df6e8454e4b1b912c7de~) with the following message:

> The alternate editor may be Emacs, which is useful when you want to
> eval something in an existing Emacs (if it exists), or in a new Emacs
> if there's no server running.

I beg to differ. In fact, the --eval is not an optarg parameter, instead
it tells emacsclient to treat the whole FILE argument as lisp
expressions for evaluation.

Therefore, invoking
  emacsclient -a emacs -e '(emacs-version)'
just opens a file named "(emacs-version)" in a new instance of Emacs if
server is not running.

Message #11 received at 40731 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Ilya Ostapyshyn <ilya.ostapyshyn <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 40731 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40731: Followup
Date: Sat, 08 Aug 2020 14:39:33 +0200

Ilya Ostapyshyn <ilya.ostapyshyn <at> gmail.com> writes:

> I have found a commit ~6fe661342a24edcaea255c3ba9a37613031554da~ which
> addressed the same issue but in a different way.
>
> However, the commit was reverted
> (hash ~f198a5c5144fdded1400df6e8454e4b1b912c7de~) with the following message:
>
>> The alternate editor may be Emacs, which is useful when you want to
>> eval something in an existing Emacs (if it exists), or in a new Emacs
>> if there's no server running.
>
> I beg to differ. In fact, the --eval is not an optarg parameter, instead
> it tells emacsclient to treat the whole FILE argument as lisp
> expressions for evaluation.
>
> Therefore, invoking
>   emacsclient -a emacs -e '(emacs-version)'
> just opens a file named "(emacs-version)" in a new instance of Emacs if
> server is not running.

Hm.  Unfortunately the reverting commit doesn't refer to the test case
that somebody had for this, but there was a complaint after the change
that the change ruined their work flow.

There was a test case for this, but it wasn't included in the reversion
commit, and I don't recall what it was now...

emacsclient -a "emacs -e" -e '(emacs-version)'

or something?

In any case, we can't regress this work flow, so we can't fix this
somewhat illogical way emacsclient works, so I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

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